The Album Review Club - Week #193 (page 1300) - East Side Story - Squeeze

It's been a pretty fragmented listening experience this week, circumstances dictating that I break it down into chunks at a time and through a cheap pair of ear buds. Small samples of the samples.

I canvassed my son's views as he is a fan of this sort of thing and he says it's a brilliant album, 9.5 and that De La Soul are in the top 3 groups. Doesn't mean shit to a tree though as far as the Bluemoon music thread scoring goes.

Enough has already been said about the difference between this and most of the rap music one hears, including from my son's room and I have read a few articles too that expand on the playfulness and almost mundane nature of the lyrical content. It does at times have the feel of being a novelty record that could veer into parody at times but the overall sense for me was of it being fun and that these guys didn't take themselves too seriously.

Musically, I'll be honest I don't know what is them and what is sampled on the whole and had to google to pin down the Steely Dan. It's obvious once you know. I think I've only ever heard Aja once and remember thinking it a bit dull compared to Can't Buy a Thrill. Eye Know is one of my favourite tracks on this album though. Along with The Magic Number.

Overall it's patchy but I'm far from being offended by it. I find it clever rather than derivative, funny in parts and for someone who doesn't like to dance I have found myself involuntarily twitching at times to the groove.

It's too long, and the skits, like most comedy albums or indeed any spoken word are OK the first time but end up being superfluous. I found a couple of tracks annoying but not in the way I find the more violent and misogynistic rap annoying, just, well probably not the best songs.

But overall, I enjoyed this much more than I expected to. At the start of the week I was going to give myself a free pass using the excuse of being out of the country and with limited time to listen to it but I find myself regretting to a degree not having the facility to give it a "proper" listen and even though I'll be coming back from the states with an armful of new vinyl I will give this it's due when i get home as well.

A surprise hit and despite it's faults I'm going to give it a 7. I shall also ask my son to guide me in the direction of what else in their catalogue might be worth a listen.
 
RobMCFC said:
I'll say one thing in this album's favour: it's started quite the discussion.
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The discussion is unfortunately a debate between whether this is music or not -- a discussion this thread should be well beyond.

More interesting to me is whether the childishness of it undercuts its complexity, or whether it's supposed to be a counterpoint to the direction hip-hop was going at the time.
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
The discussion is unfortunately a debate between whether this is music or not -- a discussion this thread should be well beyond.

More interesting to me is whether the childishness of it undercuts its complexity, or whether it's supposed to be a counterpoint to the direction hip-hop was going at the time.
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Interesting point, makes me wonder that in being so apparently self deprecating they might have missed the opportunity to give a more powerful message
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
The discussion is unfortunately a debate between whether this is music or not -- a discussion this thread should be well beyond.

More interesting to me is whether the childishness of it undercuts its complexity, or whether it's supposed to be a counterpoint to the direction hip-hop was going at the time.
Click to expand...
I have to say that my initial thoughts on the album have changed slightly.
When I initially went to nominate this it was very much down to the memories of it. How I, along with the rest of my flatmates, thought it was a breath of fresh air. However, from reviewing it now I share a few of the gripes about the album that others have raised. These being most notably the length of it and the "filler" bit with the "skits".
It did cause me to question whether it was my age at first hearing this (being still slightly childish) that made me enjoy it.
The couple of gripes apart, I have taken it over all as being a counterpoint to that which had come before (PE/NWA etc). Each has its merits, but here they just did something a little different.
I mentioned Mike Skinner in my write up and I was very mindful of how he scored previously. My thinking being that De La Soul had that little bit more than The Streets and would be slightly better received.
Irrespective of scores I have to say that I have loved the comments from the regulars and from a couple of "blow ins".
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
The discussion is unfortunately a debate between whether this is music or not -- a discussion this thread should be well beyond.

More interesting to me is whether the childishness of it undercuts its complexity, or whether it's supposed to be a counterpoint to the direction hip-hop was going at the time.
Click to expand...
Not really, the fact that I supported denis's comment that "this is the antithesis of music" is purely my opinion.
He or I shouldn't have to preface everything with "In my opinion", it's obvious that that's exactly hat it is.

Just for fun, I googled what the exact definition of music is:-

vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion.

Or from Wikipedia:-

Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise expressive content.

So I think what this album is missing, in my opinion, is:-
  • Melody
  • Harmony
  • beauty
There is probably expression of emotion and there is rhythm, but the latter is certainly poor, in my opinion, as it's just a set of drum machines.

So yes, it is indeed music, I'll give you that.

I'm not bothered by any childishness in the slightest. Whether it undercuts the complexity, I'll leave that for other to decide as it's not a subject that interests me.
 
LGWIO said:
I have to say that my initial thoughts on the album have changed slightly.
When I initially went to nominate this it was very much down to the memories of it. How I, along with the rest of my flatmates, thought it was a breath of fresh air. However, from reviewing it now I share a few of the gripes about the album that others have raised. These being most notably the length of it and the "filler" bit with the "skits".
It did cause me to question whether it was my age at first hearing this (being still slightly childish) that made me enjoy it.
The couple of gripes apart, I have taken it over all as being a counterpoint to that which had come before (PE/NWA etc). Each has its merits, but here they just did something a little different.
I mentioned Mike Skinner in my write up and I was very mindful of how he scored previously. My thinking being that De La Soul had that little bit more than The Streets and would be slightly better received.
Irrespective of scores I have to say that I have loved the comments from the regulars and from a couple of "blow ins".
Click to expand...
It is interesting that, as nominator, you are sharing some of the gripes. I wonder whether this is a first on this thread?

I can understand you going along with the "hive mind" when this came out. Are you saying that you haven't listened to this since those uni days? (sorry, can't remember exactly what you said in the write-up).
 
RobMCFC said:
Not really, the fact that I supported denis's comment that "this is the antithesis of music" is purely my opinion.
He or I shouldn't have to preface everything with "In my opinion", it's obvious that that's exactly hat it is.

Just for fun, I googled what the exact definition of music is:-

vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion.

Or from Wikipedia:-

Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise expressive content.

So I think what this album is missing, in my opinion, is:-
  • Melody
  • Harmony
  • beauty
There is probably expression of emotion and there is rhythm, but the latter is certainly poor, in my opinion, as it's just a set of drum machines.

So yes, it is indeed music, I'll give you that.

I'm not bothered by any childishness in the slightest. Whether it undercuts the complexity, I'll leave that for other to decide as it's not a subject that interests me.
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Once again, I cannot understand how one can say there is no melody when the band is literally stealing well-known melodies from other people's music. It's just an opinion that makes no sense to me whatsoever. Harmony as traditionally-defined, I agree. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I don't find it beautiful either. But I like a ton of music I wouldn't describe as beautiful -- most of what I like (nearly all, actually) isn't.
 
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RobMCFC said:
It is interesting that, as nominator, you are sharing some of the gripes. I wonder whether this is a first on this thread?

I can understand you going along with the "hive mind" when this came out. Are you saying that you haven't listened to this since those uni days? (sorry, can't remember exactly what you said in the write-up).
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I don't think I am a first in that as I think @southamptonblue did the same with his Sleep Token nomination. It may also have been a case of me simply wanting to throw something in that was out of the norm for this thread.

I have listened to this every so often since my Uni days, although it only goes on infrequently and even then not in full. It was only in the lead up to me looking to nominate this last time that I revisited in full a couple of times.
It was in doing that which lead me to be more critical of it rather than those easy going dope fuelled Uni days.
It is one of the CDs that sits in my car and gets alternated, when not streaming this threads weekly offerings.
 
RobMCFC said:
Not really, the fact that I supported denis's comment that "this is the antithesis of music" is purely my opinion.
He or I shouldn't have to preface everything with "In my opinion", it's obvious that that's exactly hat it is.

Just for fun, I googled what the exact definition of music is:-

vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion.

Or from Wikipedia:-

Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise expressive content.

So I think what this album is missing, in my opinion, is:-
  • Melody
  • Harmony
  • beauty
There is probably expression of emotion and there is rhythm, but the latter is certainly poor, in my opinion, as it's just a set of drum machines.

So yes, it is indeed music, I'll give you that.

I'm not bothered by any childishness in the slightest. Whether it undercuts the complexity, I'll leave that for other to decide as it's not a subject that interests me.
Click to expand...

Dude, stop digging. You've already reached China ;)
 
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FogBlueInSanFran said:
More interesting to me is whether the childishness of it undercuts its complexity, or whether it's supposed to be a counterpoint to the direction hip-hop was going at the time.
Click to expand...

It's 100% a conscious counterpoint to the West coast gangster direction, whether that automatically elevates some of the more juvenile stuff on it is debatable. However I don't think that matters, this is a case where outcome (i.e being instrumental in opening up an alternative path for hip hop) would trump intent anyway.
 
LGWIO said:
I don't think I am a first in that as I think @southamptonblue did the same with his Sleep Token nomination. It may also have been a case of me simply wanting to throw something in that was out of the norm for this thread.

I have listened to this every so often since my Uni days, although it only goes on infrequently and even then not in full. It was only in the lead up to me looking to nominate this last time that I revisited in full a couple of times.
It was in doing that which lead me to be more critical of it rather than those easy going dope fuelled Uni days.
It is one of the CDs that sits in my car and gets alternated, when not streaming this threads weekly offerings.
Click to expand...

I did indeed! I nominated it because it's a band I thought I would like, but didn't.....wondering 'was I missing something'? It wasn't to nominate an album I thought everyone would hate, Sleep Token headlined Download, sell out arena tours, and sell shed loads of albums!.....but after nominating it, I still don't know how!!
Without reading back, I guess I'm kind of backing your nomination, I have always said, if one person discovers an album they like, the nomination was worth it....it's not (imo) a competition for "I have great taste in music".
I did notice above a comment about "is this music"......one nomination was The Streets, so imo anything nominated is music compared to that ;)
I don't do De La Soul type music, but knew them.....you can have a 2.
 
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